#quaqopachaquilli

[shit-lets-be-dungeons]

World Building June in July: Day 2

What’s the Geography of your world?

There are 2 major continents astride the surface of Terra Faerma - the somewhat-familiar continent of Faerun, and the flooded continent Quaqopachaquilli on the opposite side of the globe. Socio-politically, Faerun is divided into 3 realms, largely confining 3 of the great world powers. 

Cal’Chult, home to the valley of Ashrane, lies across the equator, where the Ring is a thin blue sliver. This is where the story would begin, as it holds much of the territory of the Great Heroes’ Guild Federation. The greatest city in this region, Threebells, is a cosmopolitan bastion of trade in Faerun, thrice settled and protected by a set of massive belltowers. The valley of Ashrane, meanwhile, sits at the very political edge of Cal’Chult, defined by the vast caldera-volcano of Ashrane off of the Pike’s Teeth mountain range.

Opposite Col’Chult, Gul’Goath features geography created through past arcana. Deep, deep cracks into the crust of the planet; strange geometric mountains, with great floating stones above; cooky islands brimming with magical potential, populated by a host of monstrosities; Gul’Goath bristles with the aftereffects of wizarding wars and especially the conflicts of the Age of the Oppressor of the Gods. It is ironic, perhaps, that across this environment fly the flags of the Fifty Nations of Man. Technically 57 different nations of human-led cultures band together between floating islands and hollow glass mountains, advancing the anti-magical arts.

Fae’Rae, buffering both subcontinental peninsulas, holds the Sword Coast and clutches the Edge of the World, the vast hole in Terra Faerma. A central, ragged mountain range - known as The Wound - pushes itself up to dizzying heights, and most of the world’s tallest mountains are technically here. The Dominion of the Eternal Throne holds many of the domains and kingdoms that rest amongst the alpine forests - but here also lies much of “The Brutelands”, the no-man’s-land that straddles the territory of the vast, living Rose Crystal Glacier.

Beyond the Edge lies the Underside – a monstrous opposite-world to Terra Faerma. Here, the great green sun that is the Core gives a sickly, radioactive light across blasted hills and great hollow mountains (corresponding to vast holes in Terra Faerma’s surface). Some who have been there lay claim to seeing abominable aberrations: many-limbed allo-vertebrates, alien biologies and ecologies, and tentacled horrors older than history. Some also claim to have spotted a small, green object orbiting this Sun - a “moon”, some would call it. Very few have experienced the Underside itself, past the dungeons and great Cracks in the world.

The Giant’s Causeway, a great island chain, encircles the world and spirals into Quaqopachaquilli. Each of these islands is host to its own fauna, flora, and even sentience - there are indeed, many species of being that make their livelihood here on Terra Faerma. Its crown jewel, at least according to the world powers, is the archipelago Long-Zhong-Zho. This great rainy isle is the home of the Zho-Long-Dai and considered the Center of the World. Notable is the capital, the City of the World, situated within the eye of a vast storm... and supported by the World Dragon, a serpentine creature hundreds of miles longs, extending roots as far as the central seas.